Trash wave: Indonesian surfer Dede Surinaya catches a wave in a remote but garbage-covered bay on Java, Indonesia, the world’s most populated island ‘Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.’ Jacques-Yves Cousteau Photograph: Zak Noyle

The goal was to spread the issues and ideas of Speak Out and OVER far and wide, to young and old, to increase awareness on the problems we confront today and to build on solutions that promote human rights — and the rights of all species on Earth. Whether one is working to mitigate the effects of climate change, end child marriage, protect endangered species, or advocating for women’s rights, the Global Population Speak Out helped strengthen activist voices — so all our interconnected concerns were heard.

Speak Out used social media, word-of-mouth and direct action to engage opinion-leaders, scientists and citizens of the world to respond creatively to environmental degradation. Speak Out emphasized elements of environmental protection that are rarely discussed: promoting human rights and human health as strong, indispensable solutions to preserving the rights of other species to exist and the health of the planet.

Speak Out organizers granted the free copies of OVER to people and organizations around the world who became ambassadors of information and inspiration, and promised personalized delivery to policymakers, opinion leaders, activists, allied organizations, and other audiences.

Many of the subjects in OVER are often discussed by environmentalists around the world: materialism, consumption, pollution, fossil fuels, carbon footprints, and more. But OVER and Speak Out purposefully joined two ever-present parts of environmentalism together: the number of the human species and our socio-economic behaviors. The book and the campaign intentionally moved beyond tired arguments that only one side of the equation matters and pictorially depicted the importance of both the number of people and the way people live.

The environmental book became an international media sensation and demand for the OVER books was beyond our wildest expectations – fueled by over 250 mass-media articles, reaching over 1 billion readers in 47 countries.

‘What an irony it is that these living beings whose shade we sit in, whose fruit we eat, whose limbs we climb, whose roots we water, to whom most of us rarely give a second thought, are so poorly understood. We need to come, as soon as possible, to a profound understanding and appreciation for trees and forests and the vital role they play, for they are among our best allies in the uncertain future that is unfolding.’ Jim Robbins

Ashton Kutcher, actor, producer and investor posted Speak Out content on his Facebook page which resulted in over 31,000 likes, 8,000+ shares and 1,300 comments.

Hill-side slum: Slum-dwelling residents of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, face bleak living conditions in the western hemisphere’s poorest country ‘Squatters trade physical safety and public health for a few square meters of land and some security against eviction. They are the pioneer settlers of swamps, floodplains, volcano slopes, unstable hillsides, rubbish mountains, chemical dumps, railroad sidings, and desert fringes … such sites are poverty’s niche in the ecology of the city, and very poor people have little choice but to live with disaster.’ Mike Davis Photograph: Google Earth/2014 Digital Globe

While the media attention was robust, Speak Out organizers believed OVER could really effect change with the citizens and organizations speaking out and sharing their passions for saving the planet and creating a better world for all.

In Europe, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability displayed OVER at an annual congress on climate change adaptation and resilience, thereby “allowing congress participants to peruse the magnificent photos during breaks and have the photos spur thoughts and conversations.”

A library consultant at a prominent international health organization reported that “Word is getting around!” The group was sharing OVER in their campus library, which resulted in requests for copies to be taken to country offices in Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, and Uganda.

An activist in Mexico told how he shared the message from OVER: “The book has a permanent place on the counter in our restaurant and many friends/customers/associates have already entered and began to read with awe.”

Down in New Zealand, a conservationist shared that “This will be a great opportunity for us to further promote the impact of increasing human populations on our fragile ecosystems and on the future of the planet’s biodiversity.”

Many of those who requested free copies of OVER were high school teachers and college professors. One teacher from the UK said “It is a really exciting and inspiring resource for future planning of activities within the Department, and in doing so, raising awareness with young people.”

Global Population Speak Out (Speak Out) united world-class scientists, academicians, opinion-leaders – and thousands of lay environmentalists and concerned citizens – to help bring international attention to the crises posed by overdevelopment and human population size and growth. Speak Out was jointly administered by Population Media Center and Population Institute.

I just listened to the most fascinating interview on KQED-FM’s radio show Forum, “Tim Wu On Advertising, Fake News and ‘Attention Harvesting’.” Here’s their promo copy:

Columbia Law professor Tim Wu is best known for coining the term “net neutrality” and for his research on the Internet, media and communications. His latest book, “The Attention Merchants,” looks at how advertisers have monetized public attention throughout history, from penny press newspapers to Facebook ads. We’ll talk to Wu about the book, get his take on the proliferation of fake news and explore what technology policy might look like in the Trump administration.

Wu explains that the attention merchants’ business model, targeting anyone who goes on Facebook or searches on Google for example, takes us as its resource to harvest. It’s takes our minds, our attention, and wants us to be constantly distracted, looking at ads, losing control over ourselves. They don’t want you reading books or talking with friends or family, because that’s all wasted revenue to them. This business model has become so pervasive in our lives, it’s starting to have profound effects on who we are and also on the underlying media. For instance, so much of the web’s content has become clickbait because that’s the only thing that can survive. It’s become a race to the bottom in terms of competing for people’s attention.

“A startling and sweeping examination of the increasingly ubiquitous commercial effort to capture and commodify our attention…We’ve become the consumers, the producers, and the content. We are selling ourselves to ourselves.”—Tom Vanderbilt,The New Republic

“An erudite, energizing, outraging, funny and thorough history…A devastating critique of ad tech as it stands today, transforming “don’t be evil” into the surveillance business model in just a few short years. It connects the dots between the sale of advertising inventory in schools to the bizarre ecosystem of trackers, analyzers and machine-learning models that allow the things you look at on the web to look back at you…This stuff is my daily beat, and I learned a lot from Attention Merchants.”—Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing

“Tim Wu has written a profoundly important book on a problem that doesn’t get enough— well, attention. Attention itself has become the currency of the information age, and, as Wu meticulously and eloquently demonstrates, we allow it to be bought and sold at our peril.”–James Gleick, author of Time Travel: A History

The Attention Merchants should be required reading for anyone working in public relations, publicity, marketing or advertising, as well as the general public.

In the U.S., more than 20 states have legalized marijuana for recreational use, and five states allow it for recreational use. President Obama recently said “You’re starting to see not just liberal Democrats, but also some very conservative Republicans recognize [prohibition] doesn’t make sense.”

So it’s only natural that as Merryjane.com recently reported, “Money is now pouring into the burgeoning industry and cannabis businesses are investing even more in public relations to burnish their image and get their brands noticed.”

“One of the drivers of the boom in cannabis PR agencies has been the high number of activists entering the industry,” the article explains. “And the questions…from reporters that are coming from the mainstream media come from a much more educated place; we’re no longer educating them on the basics of cannabis and why legalization makes sense.

“As more states legalize marijuana, there’s going to be more need for local press for things like dispensary openings and local license applications and those sorts of things. Like for instance in Colorado, obviously, there’s more local reporting going on, so I think eventually there will be more local cannabis PR offices.”

Marijuana is a booming business that will soon be sweeping the country. Cannabis is still federally illegal so a lot of media won’t accept advertisements, leaving public relations as the most effective way for the cannabis industry to gain brand awareness.

PR will play an essential role in introducing the public to the cannabis industry and transforming mainstream views. The challenge is to overcome negative stereotypes created by the most impressive campaign ever: Reefer Madness.

Just a quick note to say that my awesome client John Muir Laws, popular Bay Area naturalist, educator, and artist, will be interviewed on the syndicated public radio program West Coast Live with Sedge Thomson tomorrow, March 5, between 10am-12pm PST.

From our press release: A potent combination of art, science, and boundless enthusiasm, the latest art instruction book from Laws is a how-to guide for becoming a better artist and a more attentive naturalist.

In straightforward text complemented by step-by-step illustrations, The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling by John Muir Law includes dozens of exercises to lead the hand and mind through creating accurate reproductions of plants and animals as well as landscapes, skies, and more.

While the book’s advice will improve the skills of already accomplished artists, the emphasis on seeing, learning, and feeling will make this book valuable to anyone interested in the natural world, no matter how rudimentary their artistic abilities.

A growing body of evidence demonstrates that spending time outdoors in nature is good for us, and doctors are increasingly “prescribing” time spent outside in nature. Studies show it lowers levels of cortisol and stress, and increases white blood cells – which can help fight cancer and infections.

“Nature journaling trains your eyes to see deeper into the mystery and beauty of the world, and with practice you will also retrain you brain to be able to draw what you see,” explains Laws. “You do not need to start as an artist or a naturalist, but you will become one, and journaling can become a habit that fundamentally changes your life.”

West Coast Live is a fabulous show and this week, will be broadcast in front of a live studio audience in San Rafael CA. It’s described as a “rich mix of writers, thinkers, comedians, and musicians come mostly from the Pacific Rim and the Western United States, but also from further afield as feels right to do. Think Bill Moyers meets David Letterman, according to one reviewer.”

As a publicist, I receive a lot of offers to include my clients’ products in celebrity swag bags at various awards shows–for a fee of course.

One year we decided to try it, and we participated in a “swag suite” at the Oscars. It was set up in a luxury hotel suite showcasing green products and services for environmentally conscious celebrities, and I was there representing my beloved client, E-The Environmental Magazine. I watched the A-list famous, B-list famous, the “is she famous?” and countless personal assistants stroll through, graciously accepting cruelty-free cosmetics, acai berry juice, eco-friendly clothing, and even “eco” jewelry (never figured that one out). The event was tastefully executed and overall I felt it was worthwhile exposure for the magazine.

So my ears perked up when I heard about this year’s Oscar Gift Bag brouhaha. Turns out, the participants are getting more publicity than they ever imagined because the organizers are being sued and everyone’s talking about it. Here’s an excerpt from The Atlantic:

“Was it the Vampire Breast Lift? Or maybe the Haze Dual Vaporizer? Or maybe the Nuelle Fiera vibrator? Whatever it was (it was probably the vibrator), 2016 has proved to be the year that a longstanding Oscar tradition—the absurdly expensive and also just absurd gift bags handed out to losing nominees—seems, officially, to have Gone Too Far: Last week, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences sued Distinctive Assets, the marketing firm that has long provided the sassy swag, for trademark infringement.

“The lawsuit contended, essentially, that the party favors to end all party favors—and, more specifically, their vampy/vapey/vibey contents, this year said to be worth $232,000 in all—were giving the awards show a bad name.

“So it’s both ironic and fitting that the Academy’s complaint has had the effect of bringing even more attention than usual to the existence and the excesses of the gift bags. ‘The Oscar Gift Bags Are So Lavish That Even the Academy Is Embarrassed,’ New York magazine declared. ‘Oscar sues over unauthorized (and unsavory) swag bags,’ USA Todayhad it. Those came on top of the many, many articles that had simply catalogued the contents of the bags. Yahoomade a video ‘Dissecting the Outrageously Valuable, Not to Mention Ridiculous, Oscars Gift Bags.’ Blasting Newstook things to their logically Marxist conclusion: “THE RICH AND OSCAR-FAMOUS ARE SPOILED WHILE THOUSANDS GO WITHOUT.”

Last year the Academy warned the company to stop using its name and trademarked “Oscars” title in their name without a disclaimed. An Academy spokesperson said they “had no choice but to file a lawsuit” this year. The Academy itself used to give out its own gift bags but stopped in 2006 after the IRS began to focus on the tax obligations of the give away.

TheDailyBeast said, “Notably, the bags are only given to nominees in the main acting and directing categories, assuring that the sponsored items will only be given to the most famous people at the ceremony. Don’t think for a second that anyone who spent their life savings on a nominated Best Documentary Short is going home with a $5,000 home spa system.

“In this year of #OscarsSoWhite and #FeelTheBern, there is something even more unsavory than usual about this shameless attempt to shower excessive wealth on the excessively wealthy.”

Susan and Stephen Tchudi, hosts of the long-running radio show Ecotopia, are among the few interviewers who take time to actually read their guests’ books in advance, and prepare thoughtful questions.

So we were thrilled when they invited our client Andrew Nikiforuk, author of Slick Water: Fracking, and One Insider’s Stand Against the World’s Most Powerful Industry, to be on their show last week.

The entire hour was devoted to hydraulic fracturing—fracking—and its impacts. In the first half of the program they spoke with Andrew by phone from Alberta, Canada. He described the fascinating and frightening history of how fracking has evolved over the past 150 years, and then he told the story of Jessica Ernst, a person who has launched a single-handed campaign against commercial fracking and the Canadian government.

And in the second half of the program, they spoke with Dave Garcia, who has led the anti-fracking movement up in Butte County. He gave an update on the June 7 ballot measure that would ban fracking in Butte County, and provided precise and well researched information on why fracking is a danger, not only to the county, but to the world.

Ecotopia airs on KZFR 90.1 Chico, CA, Tuesdays, 6-7 pm and covers issues ranging from water to population to homesteading to energy and from do-it-yourself to what-can-we do? At Carney & Associates, we specialize in media relations for people who improve our world, especially those in areas of sustainability. We’re grateful that the Tchudi’s have interviewed many, many of our clients over the years. They are excellent hosts who produce intelligent, high-quality programming.

This was one of many media placements we secured during our book publicity campaign for Slick Water. Please contact me for a free consultation to discuss how our public relations services can help with your publicity needs.

With the human-caused “sixth extinction” receiving increasing attention in media coverage of climate change and the environment, I was honored to handle the publicity campaign for TheANNIHILATION OF NATURE: Human Extinction of Birds and Mammals, by Gerardo Ceballos, Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich, and published the Johns Hopkins University Press.

The authors bring enormous credibility and passion to the topic: Gerardo Ceballos is one of the world’s leading ecologists and professor at the Institute of Ecology at National Autonomous University of Mexico. Anne H. Ehrlich is a senior research scientist emeritus at Stanford University. Paul R. Ehrlich is the Bing Professor of Population Studies and the president of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University.

Our planet is now in the midst of its sixth mass extinction of plants and animals . We’re currently experiencing the highest amount of species die-offs since the loss of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Although extinction is a natural phenomenon, it occurs at a natural “background” rate of about one to five species per year. Scientists estimate we’re now losing species at 1,000 to 10,000 times that, with dozens going extinct every day.

During our book publicity campaign, the authors explained these dynamics but their emphasis was inevitably on the heartbreaking and unavoidable evidence that this extinction is human-caused and increasing.

In The Annihilation of Nature, wonderful photography presents the amazing animals and environments that are under assault. Extraordinary full-spread photographs introduce each chapter. The effect, not quite celebratory, not quite elegiac, is just right in conveying how high are the stakes and how vital the message.

Our PR campaign was a great success. The book was reviewed everywhere from the Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post, and the Los Angeles Review of Books to Salon.com, Science News, Bioscience, and Photo Review. Paul ‘s interviews aired on more than 1500 radio stations across the U.S. and Canada.

All royalties for this title go to the Navjot Sodhi Fund at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, which supports the work of young conservation biologists.

At Carney & Associates, we are proud to specialize in publicity campaigns for nature, the environment, climate change, biodiversity, food scarcity, and other sustainability issues.

Please contact me for a free consultation to discuss how our public relations services can help with your publicity needs.

Ashley Diamond, one of the women Kris features in the book, joined her for the radio interview. Ashley is a transgender woman and nonviolent offender who had sued Georgia corrections officials for failing to provide her medical treatment and safekeeping.

Here’s an excerpt from KPFA’s post: “True stories about nine transgender women in the male US prison system who grew up never feeling safe, who were surrounded by others telling them that they should be ‘ normal ’ , and that their deepest sense of who they were was an error.

“As the number of transgender people ‘coming out’ reaches levels we never before dreamed of, author Kristin Lyseggen hopes this book will shed some light on the needs of people locked up twice in their lives.

“She started writing this book as soon as she moved to California from Norway, just before we learned that Private Bradley Manning was Chelsea Manning and before we knew about the popular Netflix TV show Orange Is the New Black. In real life, most women with gender identity issues, when jailed, are put in male prisons with notorious predators. The only options for many of them in order to survive is to live isolated in cages, or become sex slaves for other inmates.

For Kristin Lyseggen to understand the reality of their lives, she had to gain trust from people she had never met and never expected to meet. This book project led Kristin from the ‘ war zone ’ in East Oakland, California, to the run-down, chaotic intensity of the Tenderloin district in San Francisco; she traveled from a boundary breaking Transgender Health Conference in Bangkok to a clandestine LGBTQI advocacy conference in Nairobi, Kenya; from an event to raise funds for incarcerated transgender women in Oakland where one speaker was ( former FBI ’ s ‘ Most Wanted ’ ) Angela Davis, a professor at University of California; to conservative Rome, Georgia and Montgomery, Alabama; to a maximum security prison in the Central Valley of California. Without exception the stories she encountered during this project were diverse and different from one another in ways that were surprising and often disturbing.

“Kristin was introduced to an almost inconceivable struggle heaped upon the usual stories of people incarcerated in US prisons. In spite of the conditions of their lives, they taught her that what landed them behind bars, and the contradictory feelings one has about their crimes, there could be the possibility of redemption.”

I was honored to conduct a national publicity campaign for Kris, and the Letters and Politics radio show was one of many PR interviews we arranged for her. You can listen to it here.

Please contact me for a free consultation to discuss how our public relations services can help with your publicity needs.

Traditionally, advertising agencies don’t really understand PR and now they’re scrambling to get up to speed. They’re learning the difference between “buying eyeballs” and “earning them.” When you’re earning eyeballs, your job is to create content that’s newsworthy.

Here are some excerpts from the piece:

“Edelman, the largest independent PR agency, is ‘getting not just a seat at the table, we’re getting half the table,’ said Jackie Cooper, global chair-creative strategy at the firm.

“Where PR used to be tacked onto a campaign after the creative was finished, Edelman is now working with brands and advertising agencies from the very beginning. The agency has been working hand-in-hand with Adobe’s creative teams, for example, from the start of the creative process to build digital activations for the software company’s creative products. Edelman won the Gold PR Lion in 2015 at Cannes for its work on the Adobe Photoshop ‘Murder Mystery’ campaign.

“Sarah Hofstetter, CEO of 360i, who worked in communications earlier in her career, said PR agencies are waking up to the power they can yield beyond media relations. “Marketers really look at how they get the biggest bang for their buck and making their work talkable certainly extends the reach,” she said.

“While 360i is a digital marketing agency at its core, Ms. Hofstetter added that she frequently puts on her PR hat to come up with ideas for clients that consumers will care about and want to share.”

But Harris Diamond, McCann Worldgroup chairman-CEO, cautions “Even though many agencies are adding new capabilities to try to create one-stop shops, the smart firms will primarily focus on what they know best.”

So on that note, contact me for a free consultation to discuss how our public relations services can help with your publicity needs. 🙂

We were thrilled with the well-deserved accolades she received from Lambda Literary. Here’s an excerpt:

“America, it seems, is just beginning to wake up to the atrocities committed against transgender women held in men’s prisons. Whereas a decade ago, stories of women being repeatedly raped, assaulted by both staff and inmates, held excessively in solitary confinement, and denied even the barest human dignities allowed to male inmates, would not conceivably make headlines; this year alone saw a leap in coverage, culminating in the New York Times’ following the case of Georgia trans woman Ashley Diamond, who opened up about being held in “sexual slavery” in several men’s prisons and denied her hormone treatment against Georgia state policy…

“…Demanding multiple readings to uncover its many layers, The Women of San Quentin emerges as one of those rare gems: a compassionate, uncompromising examination of violence that emerges from the voices of survivors themselves, and can therefore be poised to inform meaningful change if we take notice. The more that such thoroughly researched and well-crafted resources exist, the harder it is for us to plausibly deny that the treatment of trans female prisoners demands our attention and resistance. My hat’s off to Lyseggen, who was willing to use her own resources and privileges–personal time, skills, access to space, and money — to create something that the prisons and the odds seemed to refute at every turn. The world needs more art and active allyship like this. “

Contact Kathlene Carney at Carney & Associates to see how our publicity and media relations services can help promote your book or business.